I’ve had this prototype finished since June, but have finally found the time to post it here.
This project has been in the works for over a year now. I set out to create prop plans of my own, incorporating features seen in newer hero prop photos that were not included in Stefan’s plans.
While heavily using Stefan’s plans as the base, I incorporated ideas from Venkman71’s plans and noslliT’s incredible aluminum build. I designed these plans in Inkscape, checked, double checked, triple checked and quadruple checked my measurements.
Once I cut the plans out, I taped them to 1/16th-inch thick plastic sheets and used a dremel to cut sturdy, reusable templates.
After the painstaking process of creating the templates, came time to move off the floor and set up a decent workshop!
That little, affordable Dremel coping saw comes in quite handy … for smaller builds. I can only cut objects with a height of 2.5 inches, so I had to stack and glue multiple sheets to build the battery compartment.
This is where I really wish I had been patient with the battery compartment. I got ahead of myself, was too excited to finish and sloppily glued the sheets together. It turned out alright, but not as smooth as I wanted.
After a few hours the trap case was humming along nicely!
A nice little mockup of the trap itself with indicator fixed to it.
Oh those trap doors and grooves were a pain in the butt! But the result was nice.
I was really unhappy with my eagerness to get the handle screwed in and had this bent, sloppy result. I went back and fixed it properly with a brass fitting and hex head bolt. I also painted the whole build with a Elmer’s Wood Glue wash to strengthen the balsa a bit before painting.
So here’s a quick shot of the whole thing all painted up. I didn’t intend for the prototype to be painted … it sorta happened that way, but I wanted to see what it could look like. I must say that I am incredibly pleased with my first build, including the warning stripes. I ultimately tweaked a few things. The battery compartment measurements near the handle post were incorrect and the trap pedal (not pictured) has at a small bevel outward connecting to one of the project boxes on the left side I never noticed until now.
Next for me is to purchase MDF and start building again. 